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Hoarding is immoral

I find hoarding especially those few in our society that hoard wealth to be immoral.

Its a problem that is getting to be very widespread. Whether it be containers or cash do you think hoarding is healthy?

How far you go in life depends on your being: tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of both the weak and strong. Because someday in life you would have been one or all of these.GeorgeWashingtonCarver

If we want to shove the money we EARN into money market accounts and the stock market then I don't see what you can possibly have to bitch about. It was ours, never yours.

What of the fabled old man who lived in absolute poverty, no heat, eating at food kitchens and was found to have millions in his mattress? Thats an illness not healthy savings.

How far you go in life depends on your being: tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of both the weak and strong. Because someday in life you would have been one or all of these.GeorgeWashingtonCarver

Does it matter where it's kept? Are people obligated to give away what is more than they may need?

Quoting NWP:

There are folks who hoard cash. This is not the same as saving for a rainy day.

Quoting yourspecialkid:

Quoting NWP:

You are discussing something complete different.

Quoting yourspecialkid:

Oh my. I don't call it hoarding, I call it saving for a rainy day. My life may not always move so smoothly and I don't want to have to depend upon whatever the govt is doling out at the time.

Besides...it is MY responsiblity to provide for myself and my family.

AND..it is MY money, money I worked for, took risks for, focused on needs and not wants for...........what I choose to do with it really isn't anyone else's business. If that makes me immoral okey dokey. At least I am immoral with a plan.

This is distinct from "income" which is the amount you earn or get paid in interest or dividends each year.

Very little wealth is hoarded. Most is invested. The main examples I can think of wealth hoarding isn't people who sit on piles of gold or cash. It is people who own second houses that they only use a couple of weeks each year, and that they don't rent out.

What's the difference between wealth that's invested and wealth that's hoarded? When you invest a portion of your wealth in the stock exchange, by giving the CEO of the company $10,000 in return for the CEO giving you a certificate saying you own 20 shares in the company (out of the 50,000 shares that he's issued so far), that $10,000 doesn't sit idle - the CEO puts it to use, building a new factory, researching new products, creating new jobs and paying wages to those new employees. And those employees, in turn, can use those wages to further do stuff. The wealth isn't idle - it moves about.

So, sure, hoarding wealth is foolish and inefficient. But it is quite rare, and doesn't harm the economy or other people.

What you were trying to ask about, I think, is people who are rich. Billionaires.

And no, I don't think it is immoral to be very rich.

How you got there may or may not have been moral. Depends on how you did it.

And the use you decide to make of your money may or may not be moral. If you use it to cure cancer, that's obviously positive. If you use it to fund the development of bioweapons which you then release, that's obviously negative. If you just stick it in a bank account, and let your bank put it into the stock market on your behalf, that's more or less neutral. It isn't depriving anybody else of something.

But being rich, in and of itself, isn't intrinsically good or evil. Just powerful.

If we want to shove the money we EARN into money market accounts and the stock market then I don't see what you can possibly have to bitch about. It was ours, never yours.

What of the fabled old man who lived in absolute poverty, no heat, eating at food kitchens and was found to have millions in his mattress? Thats an illness not healthy savings.

is mental illness "immoral"?

I was going to quote your other reply. I guess intent matters. I suppose that there are people who are just ill and I suspect there are others consumed with greed who pinch their pennies very hard and subject their employees to heartless conditions and refuse to reinject their money back into the economy and I would call that imoral

I think both cases may be illness but one is acquired purposely.

How far you go in life depends on your being: tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of both the weak and strong. Because someday in life you would have been one or all of these.GeorgeWashingtonCarver

Demanding a high salary from a limited pool does mean that some other worker is being a reduced income. And also, indirectly, because you can pay high prices for things, the prices are driven up a little, which means that other worker's money doesn't go quite as far as it used to.

I distinguish salary here from other forms of income. If you get a high income by working for yourself, or writing books which you sell, or some other form of earning which isn't at the expense of others, then greed is fine - it is self limiting. If you want to work 80 hours a week writing twice the number of books to earn twice the amount, then go ahead, knock yourself out, your readers may thank you (if you keep up the quality, anyway). :_)

If we want to shove the money we EARN into money market accounts and the stock market then I don't see what you can possibly have to bitch about. It was ours, never yours.

What of the fabled old man who lived in absolute poverty, no heat, eating at food kitchens and was found to have millions in his mattress? Thats an illness not healthy savings.

is mental illness "immoral"?

I was going to quote your other reply. I guess intent matters. I suppose that there are people who are just ill and I suspect there are others consumed with greed who pinch their pennies very hard and subject their employees to heartless conditions and refuse to reinject their money back into the economy and I would call that imoral

I think both cases may be illness but one is acquired purposely.

drug addiction is acquired by intention. Does that make them less sick?

"Hoarding wealth?" Wait, are you talking about people like the ones on the show Hoarders who live in filth or are you talking about people who save their money? There is nothing wrong with saving money.

Well, when we have the super-rich who are continuiing to build and hoard their own super wealth on the backs of all the rest of us while failing to reinvest in America thats a problem for everyone.

Quoting furbabymum:

There are people who hoard animals and people who hoard bags of their own feces. I don't see why they should be used as an example to everyone else not to get animals or poop.

Quoting survivorinohio:

Quoting furbabymum:

If we want to shove the money we EARN into money market accounts and the stock market then I don't see what you can possibly have to bitch about. It was ours, never yours.

What of the fabled old man who lived in absolute poverty, no heat, eating at food kitchens and was found to have millions in his mattress? Thats an illness not healthy savings.

How far you go in life depends on your being: tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of both the weak and strong. Because someday in life you would have been one or all of these.GeorgeWashingtonCarver

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